Last week I was in Toronto for meetings and I got into a cab and the very first thing I noticed was that there was a console in the middle of the back seat and it had packs of gum, candies, bottles of water and a few other things I didn’t explore. My impression? “Aw, that’s nice!”

Creating a great customer experience

The first thing the driver told me after I told him where I was going was that I could help myself to anything there, it was for me. I immediately started thinking about how it really is the little things that can make all the difference in a great customer experience.

It doesn’t have to cost a lot

The cost of what was sitting in the console next to me was, tops, $10. I helped myself to one candy, which probably cost 5 cents. Just the fact that I COULD take anything I wanted made me feel like I was having a great experience. So I told him so and we had a great chat the rest of the way to the airport.

He pointed out the extra features he had in his cab. There were nice, new, and crisp magazines in the pouches of the seats in front of me that I could read if I wanted, there were pillows on the back window that I could use if I wanted to get more comfortable (he said they were used a lot to prop up arms, especially on longer drives to the airport) and he told me about an arrangement he had at a hotel where he could pick up bags on behalf of customers. He also told me about the car wash membership he paid for quarterly, never giving himself an excuse not to keep his cab in tip top shape.

We went on to talk about how the majority of his work comes from people calling him to pick them up and how many people tell him they prefer to get rides from him because it’s such a nice experience. When the price of a cab ride can’t be changed because a meter is in charge, he stands out by creating a great experience; an experience that doesn’t cost him much at all but I BET gets him lots more in tips than his competitors.

It works offline and online

While this story is all about something that happened in person and not online, the lesson carries over to all spaces when you’re a business owner. When you create friendly customer experiences, when you make people feel good, when you go above and beyond what you HAVE to do, you build relationships with people. When you build relationships with people, those people will come back to you, even if it’s a bit more inconvenient or costs a bit more.

The cab driver gave me his card and told me if I ever needed to be picked up at the airport to just text him before I got on my flight in Ottawa. His card is safely tucked in my wallet now because I have a feeling I will do just that.

Have you had any great customer service experiences that were low cost but had big impact? Are there any little things that you do that do this? Leave a comment and tell us what they are!